I come to chess a little later in life, so I have no aspirations of greatness. I realize that I will have to settle for the fact that I lose just over half my games. I am not yet rated, I did try a correspondence tournament but I couldn’t keep up with my schedule. Maybe when I retire. But I do love the slower time controls that correspondence offers. So I feel a little sad at heart when everyone seems to say that classical chess is on it’s way out and the rapid type of chess will become the norm. I haven’t really experienced it yet online where I play correspondence games, but I do play about four different sites. I would be interested in other players views.
All over-the-board tournaments, whether fast or slow, are pretty much dead right now because of the nationwide health crisis and crowding restrictions. I am confident that, if and when this virus is conquered, slow tournaments as well as fast ones will return to the scene, and you’ll have plenty to choose from.
Bill Smythe
I appreciate the reply. I know of course that our present situation is what it is and we will come out on the other side of it better prepared next time around. My sadness is due to something’s I have been hearing from those inside the chess community who pretty much declaim that they think classical chess is a dinosaur that will not make a real comeback when all else returns to a semblance of normalcy. The most recent was on a podcast called perpetual chess podcast with Ben Johnson his guest was Jesse Kraai.
Jesse Kraai is known for preferring fast chess, so that podcast may have created an inaccurate overall impression.
It is probable, however, that some controls that used to be considered fast are now largely viewed as slow, such as G/90.
Bill Smythe
G/90 is about my limit as to how fast I am willing to play. I hope that it doesn’t become the slowest TC available. I believe that OTB chess is moving toward faster time controls, but before the current crisis, there were still plenty of tournaments slower than G/90 (or G/90 inc 30, which feels slower), and I hope these will come back. I don’t think we’ll see anything that slow online, though, which is one reason I’m not interested in online chess.
Just a little change from 50 years ago when G/90 was considered so fast they called it a tornado time control.
G/90 didn’t exist 50 years ago, 30/30 tournaments were called tornadoes in Illinois back when I was playing at the old Chicago Chess Club (in downtown.)
I recall that “tornadoes” around here were 40/60, 20/30, etc. That was before the advent of the Allegro time controls. 30/30 events were not rated. Then they were, but with a sudden death time control. All of this was in the era of analogue clocks. Once digital clocks appeared, there was an explosion of different time controls.
Long time controls were different in each city back in the 1970’s when I started to play in tournaments. In some places 50/120, 25/60, etc. was the norm. In others, I saw 40/120 or 40/150, the time control first favored in world championship matches. I recall these latter time controls called “Botvinnik chess” because of time pressure and adjournments favoring his style of play. Trying to play three games of 50/120 in one day was grueling, unless you were very good or very bad because your games were shorter. There were a lot of games that went over 5 hours of play. Games adjourned at move 75 on a Saturday were played off at 7 am on Sunday morning. I do not miss that, either as a player or as a TD.
I play all time controls, though I prefer slower time controls. We are all stuck with fast time controls as that seems what organizers only want to offer as one day, four round tournaments have become the thing. The two day or three day tournaments are generally more expensive Grand Prix events. My favorite tournaments were the old Metropolitan Pittsburgh Championships which were 6 round events held across three Saturdays in January. It was actually possible to do real preparation during the week for the following Saturday’s opponents. Most chess leagues have slower time controls, most with only one game per day.
I don’t think that’s quite accurate. 30/30 never would have been rated at all. The fastest allowable control was 30/60, and there was no sudden death.
I think Garrett Scott in Bloomington was the one who coined the word “tornado”. His were 1 day, 4 rounds at 30/60. A couple years later, U.S. Chess sped up the fastest allowable from 30/60 to 40/60, and Garrett Scott immediately followed suit.
Who knows, my memory on these points might not be perfect, either.
Bill Smythe
The May 1970 issue of Chess Life and Review includes a TLA for the Lincoln Tornado (Ill.), a one day, four round Swiss with a 30/60 time control. Other one day Swisses in that issue had time controls of 45/1½. Most tournaments were two days or longer. The Eastern Speed Championship, a CCA event in New York City, was a 12 round Swiss with a time control of “15 minutes per player per game (not rated)”.
On Wabash?
Or perhaps even earlier, on Van Buren east of Wabash. (You might be too young to remember that one.)
Bill Smythe
Don’t remember the exact address, but in the early 70’s it was just east of the L, across the street from Rose Discount Records, which you could see looking out the windows to the west. Rose Discount Records was on Wabash, but I think the building entrance for the Chicago Chess Club was on Van Buren.
Aha, so you’ve got a few years on kbachler. The address was 64 E. Van Buren, indeed just east of the L, and I think I remember Rose Discount Records too.
A couple of years later the chess club moved to a second-floor location in the 500 block of S. Wabash, next to the screeching L as it negotiated a tight S-curve on its way to the then new 95th Street station. Fittingly, another occupant of that building was a club for the deaf, unable to hear the L screeching. Eventually, that building was demolished and the S-curve smoothed out so it doesn’t screech so badly anymore.
Bill Smythe
I know I played in a tournament that was at the LaSalle Hotel around 1975 (the hotel was torn down in 1976), up on the Mezzanine level, but I don’t know if that was just a location for that tournament or if the club was housed there for a while. I also remember playing in an event north of the Chicago River, but I don’t remember much about where it was held. I moved to Nebraska in 1977, so it would have been before then.
We lived in an apartment in ‘Juneway Jungle’ for a while, across the back fence was the CTA yards. Didn’t need alarm clocks, trains getting geared up for rush hour started screeching by 5AM. Much of that neighborhood has been torn down, I’m sure the rats were the most upset by that.